KUALA LUMPUR: About 4,000 students from 100 schools across the country are now getting free meals before the beginning of classes.
Under the food supplementary programme (Rancangan Makanan Tambahan or RMT) which was launched by the Education Ministry today, students in the morning session will get free breakfast between 7am and 7.30am, while those in the afternoon session will get lunch between 12.30pm and 2pm.
This is an expansion of an existing free food programme for very poor students that was implemented in 1979.
Under the new programme, apart from very poor students, children with disabilities, those in the Orang Asli community as well as underprivileged students from elementary schools will also benefit.
Education director-general Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim said the students were selected from households whose income fell below the national poverty line.
Under the 1979 programme, children are given their meals during the recess hour.
“We want to focus on the very poor children, to ensure that they are not hungry when they start classes for the day,” she said at the launch of the programme at the Seri Suria Primary School here this morning.
The food will be served at the school cafeteria but at schools where there are no cafeteria, the Parent-Teacher Associations have been advise to take responsibility for organising the process of distributing the food.
Habibah said there were 20 items on the menu, as suggested by the Health Ministry.
“All the food is packed with the right calories and nutrients. Each packet of food will bear the name of the child to ensure that no one is left out,” she said.
The first phase of the programme covered a mix of national and vernacular schools. The ministry is awaiting the budget to launch the next phase of the programme.
Most of the selected schools were close to apartment buildings under the housing programme for the hardcore poor.
